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Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Spotlight On...Jessica Elkin

Education: The New Actors Workshop, Empire State College (SUNY), Columbia College Chicago, Marymount Manhattan College, Point Park University.

Select credits: Twenty-four hour play festival at The Kraine Theater.

Why theater?: Theater allows me to utilize all of the various training I have had through out my life and there is nothing like the thrill of immediate feedback from a live audience.

Who do you play in Rise of the Usher?: I play eleven different characters.

Tell us about Rise of the Usher: It is about an attempt to ascend the ranks of the theater support staff hierarchy through any means, once attained the protagonist feels an emptiness, which can only be filled by love.

What inspired you to write Rise of the Usher?: Having worked as an usher, directress, and backup ticket taker at various Broadway theaters.

What is it like being a part of Rise of the Usher?: Being both an actress and writer in a solo show is both liberating and terrifying.

What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Good writing and acting, and a minimal set usually. Heather Woodbury, who is a genius!

Any roles you’re dying to play?: Josie in A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O’Neill.

What’s your favorite showtune?: Anything by Sondheim.

If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: Mabou Mines Theater Company.

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: A younger version of Kitty Winn in "Breaking the Mold".

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: Cherry Jones in The Heiress.

What show have you recommended to your friends?: Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Chocolate.

If you weren’t working in theater, you would be ______?: I would ideally be in dance and education.